A repetitive strain injury (RSI) is occupational overuse syndrome, non-specific arm pain or work related upper limb disorder. RSI caused from overusing the hands to perform a repetitive task, such as typing, writing, or clicking a mouse. Unfortunately, most people do not understand what RSI is or how dangerous it can be. You can easily prevent RSI using open source software called Workrave.

How to reduce your risk of Developing RSI

Take breaks, when using your computer, every 30 minutes or so. Use software such as workrave to prevent RSI.

Regular exercise can prevent all sort of injuries including RSI.

Use good posture. Adjust your computer desk and chair to support muscles necessary for good posture.

Workrave

Workrave is a free open source software application intended to prevent computer users from developing RSI or myopia. The software periodically locks the screen while an animated character, “Miss Workrave,” walks the user through various stretching exercises and urges them to take a coffee break. The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit. The program works under MS-Windows and Linux, UNIX-like operating systems.

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Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

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It’s also good to mention that workrave has problems with xorg 1.6.0 and not working after installation (at least in my gentoo box). the solution is to disable the record module in xorg.conf like this:

Workrave-1.9.2 fixed this problem. It’s not needed anymore to disable xorg record module. In fact with the above setting you are getting this 3rr0r with newest version of Workrave (Workrave won’t run):

If people are so lame that they need to be reminded of stuff like this, how long before they upgrade the app to “don’t forget – it’s time to pick your nose”, “go to the bathroom”, “fart”, “eat”, “sleep”, “breath”, etc. Talk about creating a solution for a problem that does NOT exist (at least for someone that can still rub a brain cell or two together).

For the ones using Windows, I think the better options are still Speech Recognition. I tried to use another program (RSI Shield), but in the end it just annoyed me, and I had to disable it when I was in the middle of solving some problem. With speech recognition, there is no such problem, since I am not even using the hands. For the ones that canÂ´t pay for Dragon NatSpeak, I would suggest Windows Vista or Windows 7 with built-in speech recognization. The only drawback of Windows is its way of moving the mouse by voice, which requires a lot of commands. For this issue, I found a tiny program called Voice Finger , that does a wonderful job at moving the mouse around and clicking with the voice. Now my RSI is much better, and I hope soon I will be completely healed.